1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cook surfaces and, more particularly, to non-stick cook surfaces made from an impregnated metal-ceramic material and to a method of making the surface.
2. Description of Related Art
Non-stick cook surfaces are typically made from a PTFE material (polytetrafluoride ethylene) such as the well-known Teflon® brand coating. These PTFE coatings have a finite life due to their organic makeup. Over time, these coatings dry out and lose their lubricity. In addition, the PTFE family of non-stick coatings is relatively soft and very susceptible to scratching, gouging and the like when sharp metal edges come into contact with the coating surface. Hence, care must be taken to use plastic/non-metal utensils when cooking with a PTFE cook surface so as to avoid damaging the surface.
Other attempts have been made to apply ultra-smooth, hard surfaces to provide non-stick properties to cookware. An example of such is a hard, scratch-resistant zirconium nitride non-stick surface disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,423. While this coating improves the food release properties over a bare metal cook surface, it still does not approach that of a new PTFE coated surface.